Standing on the top of Africa
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
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Trip End
Nov 11, 2007
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Mount Kilimanjaro,
Tanzania
Sunday, October 28, 2007
The trek started with three relatively easy hiking days - going 'pole pole' (Swahili for slowly, slowly) - through some really great terrain ranging from tropical forest, to forests of Erica trees covered in witches hair, to desert type terrain and finally bare volcanic rock. Each day our tents were set up by the time we reached camp, with a warm washing water soon to follow, as well as tea and snacks. It was great. The fourth day was an 8 hour day, then we ate and went to rest as we started the summit attempt at midnight that night. Around 6:30 pm a huge windstorm rolled it that continued all night. It went from about 0 at camp to -15 Celsius at the peak, but the wind chill the entire night was crazy. Chris told me this morning that I looked like I aged 10 years overnight because my face is so chapped from windburn.
In any case, after a very long night, we arrived at Stella Point around 5:30 am, just before sunrise. It was awesome. The guides sang hymns just as we reached the top. After that it was a relatively easy walk to the Uhuru Peak (easy if you ignore the altitude, cold, and time of day) and we arrived at elevation 5895 m about 6:15 am. After some quick pictures we headed back down. The glaciers are beautiful with vertical walls, and the mountain is mostly a soft scree of small volcanic rocks and dust, great for getting down fast.
We headed down to 3100 m to camp that night, so in all we put in a 12 hour day, with a couple hours rest in the middle. A lot of effort, but totally worth it - it was an awesome experience.
We are back in Arusha today and start our Safari tomorrow, so there won't likely be any entries for another 6 days. There are a couple of random pictures - didn't have time to pick the best...
Take care.
